It's USA and the context is banking, so the current year is still somewhere in the 1970s.

Last time I bought a brand new car (~8 years ago?), the dealer told me I couldn't pay more than $X amount, using credit cards, on the car, so I still needed a bank check for the rest (they wouldn't accept a personal check either).

Don't know if things have changed since.

I did this for my recent automobile purchase. It's very convenient from my perspective to simply write a check and hand it to them.

I did this 2 years ago. I write personal checks all the time (although many are actually "written" by my bank in the US).